Bitcoin (BTC) failed to break and hold $48,000 before facing strong rejection early on Monday as the US Dollar strengthened. Key altcoins including Ethereum (ETH) bled along with it. The total cryptocurrency market cap stood at $2.02 trillion with a decline of 5.3 per cent from the previous day. Trade volumes across exchanges rose by 4 per cent in the past 24 hours.

BTC, after rejection at the $48,000 level found support at $46,900 before a flash dip of about 4 per cent that took it below $46,000. BTC is now trading at $45,660 with a daily decline of 4.6 per cent. BTC dominance, now at 42.5 per cent, has risen as altcoins bled more.

ETH dropped 6 per cent today and is trading at its support level of $3,200. With an intraday high of $3,450, ETH lost its $3,350 support early morning and has flipped it to resistance.

All top 20 cryptocurrencies, except Cosmos (ATOM), were in the red. ATOM hit a new all-time high today at $43, rising by 10 per cent intraday, and entered the top 20 crypto list. Terra (LUNA), Solana (SOL), and Algorand (ALGO) dropped by more than 9 per cent.

BTC resistance at the $48,000 levels has gotten stronger with the increase in the number of shorts and sell orders. On the lower side, support at the $44,000 level has remained while the 20-week moving average is now around $41,000 and is expected to provide stronger support. Should BTC break $48,000, it will need to wrestle with another major resistance at $49,500. With BTC dominance now on the rise, altcoins rallies are expected to slow down.

Top Gainers today:

1. Celo (CELO): 12.3%
2. Near Protocol (NEAR): 7.4%
3. Audius (AUDIO): 6.7%

Top Losers today:

1. EOS (EOS): -12.7%
2. Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR): -12.4%
3. Elrond (EGLD): -12.3%

The analysis includes the top 100 cryptocurrencies only as of 9 am IST

Source: CoinMarketCap

Crypto News at a Glance:

1. Russia has announced plans to increase the time taken to process payments made to cryptocurrency exchanges to stop Russian citizens from making impulsive Bitcoin purchases.
2. Germany has approved a security token offering based on a Bitcoin sidechain that allows German investors to participate in the sale of EXOeu token on Stokr, a European digital marketplace.
3. Magnum Real Estate group becomes the first New York company to accept Bitcoin as payment for the sale of 3 stores in Manhattan. Payments will be processed via BitPay with a 1 per cent handling fee.
4. A Bitcoin wallet that had been dormant for almost 9 years became active when its owner transferred all of its 616 Bitcoins ($30 million) to a different wallet. In the time the wallet has lain dormant, the price of Bitcoin has gone from $13 to $47,800.